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EF2 tornado in Orleans Parish, Louisiana

Tornado February 13, 2007 · Orleans Parish, Louisiana

EF2

Rating

1.3 mi

Path length

50 yd

Path width

Death

Injuries

$1.0M

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 50 yards (0.03 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A tornado touched down just south of the intersections of Franklin Avenue and Prentiss Street and moved east northeast across the southern portion of Pontchartrain Park to the Industrial Canal. Roofs were blown off of several homes and the upper portions of two story houses were partially collapsed. One fatality occurred when a travel trailer was destroyed and the 86 year old occupant was fatally injured.

The wider storm

Isolated supercell thunderstorms developed in the early morning hours over sections of southeast Louisiana well in advance of a squall line associated with a strong upper air storm system and cold front moving through the lower Mississippi Valley. These rogue rotating supercell storms produced tornadoes as well as large hail and isolated wind damage. A tornado in Jefferson Parish destroyed 23 houses and damaged 231 others. Tornadoes in Orleans Parish destroyed 32 houses and damaged 295 others.

Began near Gentilly (30.0121, -90.0519).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

2 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF2 Jefferson Parish EF2 Orleans Parish

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 16784. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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